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National Football League 2016: It’s Beyond Time To Fire Jeff Fisher

Jeff Fisher hasn’t guided a team to the playoffs since 2008 and is two losses away from a fifth-consecutive losing season with the Rams. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Imagine, for a moment, that someone knocked on your door with a stunning new Porsche. It has all the bells and whistles one would expect a luxury vehicle to have. Leather seats, a custom sound system, the perfect shade of black (or red, or blue) paint. But it has no engine or wheels.

Now the initial response might be “well I can figure that part out”, right? You get a Porsche, the possibilities are there I just have to change a couple things. But what if you don’t. What if you didn’t commit, fully, to fixing what’s wrong with it? Then you’re stuck with this car, with all of this potential. Meaning you have to look at it, day-after-day, in your driveway. How annoying would that be?

Welcome to a glimpse of NFL football in Los Angeles.

I’ve always maintained that the Rams have the makings of a team that can compete (at least for a Wild Card) in the NFC considering their talent. They have the running back; they have the defense; they now have the quarterback (we can talk about it). What they don’t have is a head coach. While this may sound harsh it’s a reality that Stan Kroenke, Les Snead, Kevin Demoff, and whoever else making the decisions needs to realize. Quickly. Los Angeles has, and that’s not a good thing.

It would be difficult to find a head coach who survived five-consecutive losing seasons and “earned” a sixth season with that same team; yet Jeff Fisher might pull it off. Jeff Fisher is three losses away from the most losses in NFL history. Jeff Fisher hasn’t taken a team to the playoffs since the 2008 Tennessee Titans. Jeff Fisher hasn’t had coached a team to a record above .500 since those very same 2008 Tennessee Titans. And let’s not forget how much this is costing the franchise:

The Rams five-year bill for Jeff Fisher comes to around $35 million. His teams so far are 31-43-1.

Let’s also not forget, the Tennessee Titans own the Rams 1st-round pick in 2017. Yikes.

If you’re not understanding what I’m saying, it’s that Jeff Fisher needs to be let go if the Rams are going to make it in Los Angeles. Even as I type, Fisher’s team is preparing to play the New England Patriots this week and he referenced Danny Woodhead as a player they need to look out for. Woodhead hasn’t played for the Patriots since 2012.

Here’s an example of how rare the situation Jeff Fisher has been afforded with the Rams is. Lovie Smith, currently coaching the University of Illinois Fighting Illini, had three losing seasons total in Chicago and was fired after his last three seasons there when his teams went 11-5, 8-8, and 10-6. He then took over a Buccaneers team that went 4-12 in 2013. After going 2-14 in 2014, the team saw improvement his second season going 6-10 (with four of those losses by eight points or less); yet he was fired, still. This isn’t a rallying cry for Smith, it’s an indictment of Fisher and the job he’s done in two cities.

I’m not mincing words when I say this: Jeff Fisher needs to be let go. But I’ll give him credit, he was right about one thing: